Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-01-07
CARL,S CHRISTMAS TREE.
BY CLIO STANLEY.

BY CLIO STANLEY.
It was quaint old streetthat ran through
quaint old German town, dividing it e2-
actly in the middle. On one side of the
street we're business houses and bank
Offices, whose owners and directors lived
over them; three, four, and even five
stories high they were, looking like great
giants ready to devour tho meek little
houses on The other side.
One way the town had magnifed itself
into city; all the streets from the center
to the river being built up and up until the
roofs in one street shut out almost all the
sunshine from the windows of the next. so
narrow were the streets and SO tall the
houses.
In tho streets was heard all day the hum
of business, the roar of machinery, and
the noisy rumble of the heavy wagons 60
ing to and fro, while the men wore anxious
faces ofentimes, and even the young faces
one met seemed to have lost half their
freshness.
But the other side of the quaint old street
boasled itself only of little one-story
cottages, sometimes with tiny windows in
The roofs, and pleasant patches of
green about the house, frightened here
and there by cluster OF rose
bushes, or border lof sweet-scented
flowers: and back from this side of the
street. all the way to the hills that stood
so grand and true, TO shelter them from the
cold north winds, were other rambling little
streets, each with its humble cottage
homes. los gardens and its small fields;
so this way you see the town had stood
quite still, satisfied to let the other half
grow big and proud, if it might only keep
its harvest of old fashioned happiness and
coutentment.
For nearly ten years Carl Rutter had
been book-keeper in the clearinghouse
of Adam Schreib and his brother Hans,
until now be seemed part of the house;
and when they moved into their handsome
new quarters he moved with them, carrying
his small belongings up into the story just
under the caves, where he could have
beautiful outlook over the country half of
the town, which he dearly loved; for he
had been brought up from a lad among
the green hills of Franconia, and had many
a longing for the old home and the old
ways.
Somehow these modest homes lying so
peacefully side by side, and the quiet
lives the fathers, mothers. and little chill
dren led, we're more to him than MI the
hustle and excitement on his own side of
the street, even though in the midst of it
he WAS getting rich. But then he hardly
knew why he cared to be rich man.
Years ago, when he first came to the old
German town, he had dreams of making
money to buy home, just like some of
those he could see from his window; but
the home was to have had blue-eyed
MISTRESS O gentle fraulein whom he had
left behind him in the Franconian- land,
but who had promised to wait until he came
back for her, no matter how many the
years might be: and when an old neighbor
had told him that Elsa had married and
gone over the hills with stranger, he felt
his ambition melt away. 1t was only the
habit OF saving, grown SO strong within
him, that kept him working on day after
day, and leaving his wages with Adam and
his brother, who were his friends all along
as we'll as bis employers; until now he had
golden accumulation laid away.
Almost opposite his window was q
tiny cottage, which Carl had often
thought was the prettiest one on the long
street. There were blossoming vines over
the doorway, little pots of flowers on the
window-silB, and such wealth of bright
hued blossoms in the small door-yard, that
it made one laugh to look at them. In
one window golden canary swung in his
painted cage, and at the other window sat
young woman, with some bit of sewing
OR knitting almost always in her hand.
When noon-time came, she would come
and stand in The doorway with bread in her
hand and the crowd of pigeons that had
been quiet an hour before under his roof
and the roofs of his neighbors, would fly
down tumultuously to eat the crumbs that
fell at her feet. Some would even light on
her shoulders and take their portion from
her hand.
"Ah," Carl would say, Just above his
breath, "what gentle creature she is!
What dear little home-keeper she would
make!"
But then his thoughts would fly back to
Elsa, and he knew he could never forget
her face nor her voice, for any other, no
matter how fair or how sweet it might be!
SO the summer passed away, and the
little door-yard was bare and lonely, only
Enlightened when tbs mistress came out to